Report on the Ninth Annual, 2016 Rachel Corrie Ramadan Tournament

Kareem Nassr, Lead Organizer of the Rachel Corrie Tournament receives community recognition from Najah Ayyash, Administrative Director Women’s Program Center-Rafah

The Rachel Corrie Ninth annual Football Tournament has successfully accomplished on Friday ,the tournament has witnessed a well and successful organizing . The media in the Gaza Strip considered this tournament as the most powerful tournament in Gaza Strip , the most notably is the strengthen of the Participating teams , and the huge audience following which exceeded all expectations and excelled the capacity the auditorium seating. In addition the quality in work, excellent organization, and the financial management element under the supervision of the Women’s Program Center where the most important reasons for the success since the start of the tournament in the 10th of Ramadan until the final in 26th of the same month .

Preparations and Participating Teams

The working committees , specially the coordinators of the committees have worked hard on processing and preparing for the tournament a month before the start , and were keen to begin announcing the Ninth version of the tournament through a Media campaign conducted by the Media Committee , in addition of signing the contract between the host club ( Al Jamaee Club ) , and the partner this year ( Women Program Center ) , and preparing the names of the workers in committees and meet them to distribute the tasks between them , in addition of preparing all publications and advertisements inside the stadium for the tournament , and the start of the teams registration process preparing for the draw which was held in an orderly way and with the participation of the best teams , Where more than 50 team registered in addition to the 16 team who have qualified to the second round of last year’s tournament , a draw was conducted for the selection of the 16 other team to complete the number of teams participating in the tournament , where the draw was held publicly 10 days before the tournament starts , where in this tournament “32” team participated , It is equivalent to 320 players and 32 coach in the tournament .

The Working Committees in the Tournament

The working committees in the tournament were formed according to the administrative structure for the success of this version , and take advantage of learning from pitfalls and mistakes in the past eight editions of the tournament , where the Supreme Committee , the Administrative Committee , the Technical Committee , the Public Relations Committee , Media committee, Order and logistic Committees were formed , the number of working people in all the committees was (23) person that worked efficiently and harmoniously throughout the tournament , each person had his duties according to his specialty until we got to the end of the tournament in the final event for the best possible outcome.

The Audience and the Tournament

The great audience attendance for this tournament has formed a powerful point and gave the matches more excitement and character for the audience which considered the timing of the beginning of the games after the prayer as the perfect time to relief themselves escaping from these hard circumstances that they live – in such as Blackouts and High humidity , and they considered their attendance as a way to express their feelings and loyalty towards the spirit of Rachel Corrie as usual in this tournament every year , the number of attendees in every game of the tournament has exceeded more than 1000 spectator, In addition to the numbers that exceeded 2000 spectator at the opening ceremony and the final , generally , during “16” days , more than 15,000 followers attended to this tournament .

Media Coverage

The tournament this year has achieved a large media coverage during the 16 days of the tournament , thanks to the efforts of the media crew who worked on the media coverage of the events of the tournament at the highest level whether reliance on visual, auditory and written means ,by sending reports and pictures to all media to spread the events of the tournament on their pages and a daily update on the tournament page on Facebook , so that was an important and effective factor in attracting followers of the tournament and inform them of all that is new about the tournament also we had a new addition in the media committee this year which is the montage element , this idea was a great one and required a lot of work by the videographer who made a huge effort to make this happen .

The Final Day

Team Hamama”, was crowned as the champion of the Rachel Corrie Ninth Annual Football Tournament after defeating ” Beit Daras ” team 3-0 in a very exciting game.

The game witnessed the attendance of a large and festive audience and some special guests. The Rachel Corrie Football Tournament was organized by the the Women Program Center – Rafah , in cooperation with the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Justice and Peace.

The Participation of VIPs

One of the most great things which happened in this edition of the tournament was the participation of the largest number of political, sports and legal characters, and institutions gathered in the tournament , who came to attend the opening and the final days of the tournament , the tournament has witnessed the attendance of very great characters in Gaza Strip such as the Deputy ” Ashraf Gom’a ” the Member of the Legislative Council , also the president of Rafah Services Club ” Karem Al Attar ” , and the presence of a large number of heads of clubs in the Gaza Strip ,and representatives of the Municipality of Rafah and the Football Association and civil community institutions .

Persons who have been honored:
Al Jamaee Club manager Women’s Programs Center
Member of the Legislative Council : Ashraf Jom’a

Best player : Imad Fahajan

Best goalkeeper : Ahmed Afana

Top scorer : Mahmoud Al Neirab
Establishing the Rachel Corrie Annual Football Tournament has many great importance in the Gaza Strip, such as:
Providing sources of income for workers .
Encouraging physical activity, especially beginners .
Help in the discovery and the development of new talents .
Revitalization of the local economy .
Strengthen the relationship between people of the Gaza Strip and Olympia .
Relief to the psyches of players in the presence of the siege on Gaza .
Reinforcing the concept of return for the younger generations .
Promote a positive view of Western societies away from politics .
Provide entertainment for the audience and the fans .

Many thanks for donors who have donated to revive this tournament, which has become one of the most important events in Ramadan which people eagerly await for it every year.

With all that has been mentioned , all goals that were defined before the tournament were successfully accomplished to great satisfaction at the highest level of quality in work , some points will be taken in consideration next year which will help us to improve the tournament and make it even better .